cenarioncirclefandomcom-20200214-history
Grummak
One of the most controversial figures of his time, the shaman Grummak left behind a complicated legacy of alliances, agendas, and ideals that is still being revealed today. Over the course of his life, he became many things to many people: friend, enemy, visionary, heretic, warlord and peacemaker, union leader and corporate officer, and, once, to a dear friend, lover. Following his death of illness and old age, many prominant figures within both the Horde and the Alliance have struggled to make their peace with his memory. Some never will. Throughout his life, Grummak took no surname, and signed his will only as "Grummak," although many later attached to him the name "Greatheart," which was first given to him as a mocking sobriquet by the poet Arjah. and father were both lost at sea during the Exodus of the Horde, and the shaman never felt the need to honor his ancestors by taking their name. He always claimed that he would take a name if he ever reached such achievments as to deserve them, and while he never made the choice to, many feel that his efforts to bring peace to the world earned him the name the troll poet gave him. Of Grummak's early history, little is considered noteworthy, although it is assumed that more detail resides in the pages of the unpublished and unfinished memoirs he left the troll Arjah in his will. He spoke occasionally in life of memories of his homeworld, and of the crossing through the Dark Portal, but the largest part of his life was shaped first by the wars, and later by the internment camps. He trained as one of the first new generation of shaman, learning the old ways hastily and sporadically as he hurried across Kalimdor with Grom Hellscream's forces. The old reflexes kept throughout life, and his work as a shaman never quite lost its touch of rough, battlefield efficiency. Despite distinguishing himself at the Battle of Mt. Hyjal (largely by surviving) Grummak never amounted to much as a soldier of the Horde. Following the institution of formal, achievement-based ranks within the Horde, he took a very reluctant promotion and a very quiet appointment to Horde Intelligence Services, where he served with some sucess as a spy and agent provocateur until a chance encounter with the bereaved spirit of a night elf in the thorne rooom of old Lordaeron left him temporarily unfit for duty. He never returned to active duty, even following recovery, and it is generally agreed that it was the experience with the spirit of Shae'lynara Wintersong in Lordaeron that marked the beginning of his private and highly controversial career. The details of Grummak's encounter with the dying night elf are still unknown, but he would speak occasionally in life of a deep and abiding bond with her, and of a great understanding gained from seeing her outside perspective of the Horde. Certainly his already-present criticism of the militaristic faction within the Horde became boldly outspoken after the Lordaeron affair, and his attacks on the prevailing mindset became so outspoken (and the repercussions of them on his reputation became so severe) that he retired for several months to a secluded cabin in the northern woods. Upon his return, he launched the campagin that, for many in the Alliance lands, branded him forever as the Warlord Grummak. Early in the fall, the Horde and Alliance both made a passing note of a relativly obscure shaman returning from medical leave and politely declining a continuation of service in Horde Intelligence. His initial approaches to friends and allies were made quietly, and the sudden emergence of a small but dedicated band of raiders determined to make a war so bloody and brutal that Horde and Alliance alike would decry battle for generations to come took leaders of both factions entirely by surprise. The raids, which depended heavily on a small but highly mobile cavalry band, swept over Alliance territories, wreaking havoc on small settlements and destroying farmsteads, cottages, and other indefensible, civilian targets, disrupting the stability and security of the Alliance heartlands, and leaving a bloody wake of dishonorable, inglorious murders so severe as to dismay even the high-ranking warriors of the Horde and the Alliance. In the process, Grummak became increasingly distant from his old friends and allies, and accquired a reputation for violent instability that would haunt him for the rest of his life. The turning point in the shaman's thoughts is unclear, although it is hoped that his memoirs will contain some greater insight, but the Warlord Grummak changed his mind roughly a month after his first raid. Throwing the invitation open to any and all, he hosted a cross-faction Armistice Day Ball in honor of the anniversary of the Battle of Mt. Hyjal, at the end of which he surrendered himself to the judgement of the Alliance Defense League. The League, wary of creating a martyr, offered him fair trial, and a jury was selected to try the single most controversial warlord to raid Alliance lands: the shaman who had hoped to make a war so brutal it would end war forever. Further confusing the issue for historians, Grummak's trial suffered an interruption by the well-intentioned Docta Hrookhzin and his band of rescuers, and Grummak himself was stolen from it by agents of the Modas il Toralar. A timely intervention by the warlock Prise, who had already put precautions in place for rescuing Grummak should the Alliance turn on him, brought him safely out of imprisonment at the hands of the Modas, but Grummak and his allies were forced to flee across Kalimdor in the night. The situation was eventually resolved, and Aziel V'Ghera declared official disinterest in Grummak, but relations between the shaman and the Modas remained strained at best to the end of his life. The trial was offically concluded nearly a year later, when Grummak formally pled guilty to Gentyl DeAmond and accepted a sentence of peaceful civil service. He pledged at the time to lay down arms, and to never again make offensive war against citizens of the Alliance, on pain of death. Despite the gentle sentence and the gesture of faith made by the Alliance Defense League in permitting him to go free, Grummak still bears the title "Warlord" in some territories of the Alliance where his raids hit the hardest, and many there will never forgive him. In an attempt to reestablish neutrality following the trial, and to find some peace and quiet in his advancing age, Grummak reluctantly signed on with the recently-founded AAMS, where he quickly took on increasing responsibilities as founding CEO Plainswander became increasingly reclusive. Shortly following his creation and leadership of the Azeroth Worker and Tradesman's Union, Grummak reluctantly stepped up as CEO himself, expanded the AAMS to include an Alliance-side branch, and opened several avanues of Horde-Alliance trade and negotiation under his or his employees' careful guidence. He oversaw a number of cross-faction meetings and alliances, including helping to frame a moderate peace between the Alliance's Sisters of Mercy and the Horde's Erinyes Sisterhood and presiding over the first-ever Summit on Neutrality and Secession, both of which were considered landmark events in reducing the barriers between Horde and Alliance. It is widely rumored, though currently unproven, that he controlled at the time of his death a vast network of informants, which he used to provide timely updates on troop movements to defenders of both factions whenever significant raids were launched. Grummak's death of illness and the publication of his last will and testament by the AAMS left both the Horde and the Alliance with a difficult legacy to come to terms with. He remains respected by many, and his name - or his unasked-for title, "the Greatheart" - is often invoked by others seeking to claim a peaceful agenda. But to many he will always remain the Warlord Grummak, the cruelest of the Horde's generals, and a ruthless destroyer hiding behind the veil of good indentions. Perhaps his memoirs, still held by the troll Arjah, will shed some light on his legacy - or perhaps, like so many of his carefully-worded statements, they will only serve the deep and private agenda that led him all his life: "Peace, by any means."